free candy

[mmcirvin]

FlightGear is pretty cool—the atmospheric effects are gorgeous.

But you know you're dealing with a geek-run open-source project when the allegedly ready-to-run binary you download requires you to first put a symbolic link to a configuration file in your home directory, and then edit the configuration file to manually tell it the path where the resources are located, and this doesn't work the first time because it doesn't understand the ~ symbol in pathnames, and after fixing that it still doesn't work because the configuration file's actual name is misspelled. (And you'll end up editing that config file frequently, because it appears that most of the program's options have no user interface.)

I know, I know, it's evil for me to mention this without first joining the project and fixing it. Anyway, it's nice to see a flight sim this fancy out there for free.

Comments

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

It's more evil of them, to release it and waste everyone's time having them make symbolic links and shit.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It's quite possible that if you build it from source instead of downloading a binary like a big BABY, the config files and such are initialized better.

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

waaah! I'm a big baby who wants my software to JUST WORK DAMMIT.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Now that I found the sub-subdirectory where the great disorganized collection of docs is hidden and poked around a little, it's pretty fun to play with.

The 1903 Wright Flyer model is educational-- yes, the thing handles pretty much like you'd expect of a box kite with an engine strapped on it; unless you have a very light touch, its "flight" consists mostly of stalling.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

There are lots of other odd aircraft buried in there; probably the craziest real one is an ornithopter (http://www.ornithopter.net/index_e.html), which some deranged aerospace engineers in Toronto are or were apparently trying to get to fly (http://www.utias.utoronto.ca/test/res/fm/fda-proj.html) (they've had trouble with the plane hopping on its landing gear to the point of airframe damage in taxi trials). It looks like a joke. I haven't been able to get it to take off.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It also has downloadable scenery files for the entire world, though they're not necessarily the most touristically detailed aside from getting airports, shorelines and some of the topography right (for instance, the experience of flying over the Boston Harbor islands is amazingly correct, but downtown Boston looks eerily depopulated). It comes with a pretty nice San Francisco Bay Area with skyscrapers and bridges and such, in hallowed subLogic/Microsoft tradition.

One of the available aircraft is a magical "UFO" for people who want to tour the scenery and don't feel like struggling with realism, kind of like MSFS's old "slew mode".